Massachusetts Personal Injury News
Number of Traffic Fatalities Dropped in 2008
According to federal highway safety officials, the number of traffic-related deaths in Massachusetts has dropped by 16 percent from 434 in 2007 to 363 in 2008. This drop coincides with the national trend.
In 2008, there were 37,261 traffic fatalities across the country, which dropped 9.7 percent from the 2007 figures and is the lowest level since 1961.
The highest number of traffic deaths in Massachusetts occurred in the counties of Middlesex and Worchester. Each county reported 56 deaths, which is 15 percent of the total in the state.
The number of deaths caused by Massachusetts drunk driving accidents also went down from 2007 to 2008, with a reported 20 percent reduction.
A Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security spokesman commented that the decline in fatalities was the result of a “simple but disciplined approach.” He went on to say that there has been an increase in sobriety checkpoints used to catch drunk drivers and that Massachusetts’ driver education efforts also contributed to safer roads.
Federal officials have said that early data for the first quarter of 2009 show that the trend was continuing across the country.
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